AUBURN, Ala. — Auburn departed from its traditional Sunday routine and gave players a day off from practice, using the time for meetings and review of game film from Saturday’s 31-10 loss to LSU.

“We’ve been going a long time,” Auburn defensive coordinator Ted Roof said. “I think the change of pace is always good and coach (Gene Chizik) knows what he’s doing and made a good decision. I think we got a lot of good work done today.”

Auburn (5-3, 2-3 SEC) has played eight straight weeks since the start of the season with three more games — Saturday vs. Ole Miss, Nov. 7 vs. Furman and Nov. 14 at Georgia — on the schedule before its one and only bye week.

The extra rest was welcomed by the players.

“We’ve been practicing three straight months, not no days off,” linebacker Craig Stevens said. “We felt like we needed a little break to get ready for the game.”

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• Chizik tread carefully when the subject of penalties came up Sunday, not wanting to get himself in trouble with the league for criticizing the officials. He was perplexed by the defensive delay of game penalty Auburn was flagged for in the first quarter, a sideline infraction Chizik had never gotten before as a coach. “Me personally, no,” he said. “But they’re doing the best they can do. Officials do a good job and they do the best they can do.”

• Safety Zac Etheridge received a personal foul penalty in the first quarter, a 15-yard infraction after Auburn had stopped LSU on third down. “To the best of my knowledge, it was basically illegal contact, meaning some sort of helmet to helmet call,” Chizik said. When asked if he thought that was the case, he said, “It was an aggressive hit, there’s no question about that. It was an aggressive hit.” Auburn was penalized seven times for 64 yards Saturday, all in the first half.

• Wide receiver Kodi Burns got hit in the mouth hard enough to knock loose a couple of his teeth early in the game Saturday. The junior had to have his lip tended to before going back in the game. “Just one of those tough guys,” Chizik said. “I’ve got to give him a lot of credit. He had to have his lip sowed up and the whole deal, and he went out there and continued to play for the whole three quarters." Burns had six carries out of the Wildcat formation and finished with 20 rushing yards.

• DE Antonio Coleman INSISTS this is not going to devolve into a situation like last year. "This is not last year's team. It's a whole different team, a whole different scenario. We won’t let it go downhill. It's not going to be like last year. We're going to keep our heads up and go out there and fight week after week."

• Roof summed up Auburn's defensive performance at LSU like this: "Well here's what happened. They had five plays for about an average of 32 yards a play, and they had 61 plays for about 3 yards a play. It came back to big plays. Long runs. Couple of the pass plays where we were in good position but just didn't make the play on the ball. It was big plays."

• Roof like what he saw out of DE Antoine Carter, who started in place of Michael Goggans for a second straight game. "I thought this was his best game," Roof said. "I thought this was a major step forward for him. He was much more sudden, much more productive. I thought that he did a great job and took a major step in the right direction."

• On Carter, Coleman said this: "He's always been a great pass rusher. He just hasn't had that many opportunities to go out there and show it. He was banged up. Now he's showing guys that they need to pay attention to him. He's taking some of the heat off me and we're both getting to the quarterback."

• Quick impression from Roof on Ole Miss' offense: 'Two things. They seem to be very physical and tremendous speed. You watch the quarterback and he can make all the throws and he's mobile enough to pull it down and make plays with his feet as well. No. 22 (Dexter McCluster) is a jet. He's really fast and they put him in a lot of different positions. I think they're offensive line is physical."

• Coleman on McCluster: "He's just like Noel Devine. That's how I look at it. He's short, speedy. It's going to be another big week for stopping the run. It's going to be a tough game, but we're back at home." Umm, Devine ran for 128 yards against Auburn this year and 207 last year. That's not a good sign.

• We got a bunch of good stuff from players and coaches about Eltoro Freeman, however, we did not actually get to talk to Eltoro Freeman. So I'm saving this stuff just in case we get to talk to him Tuesday. Anyway, here's what Coleman had to say about Freeman's 12-tackle performance out of nowhere. "Crazy. Shocking. Eltoro started off a little slow. He needed to learn the defense. He's a real Auburn man -- that's how he fights back and comes back and have an outstanding game like he did. That's what I told him on the sideline -- I know you're playing hard. I like that. He was telling me about the problems he was going through, he was out there just thinking too much. I told him to just let it loose when you get out there on the field to play. I take my hat off to him. He played an outstanding game."

• By the way, here's Chizik's explanation for his media policies and when he lets players talk (just to clarify, we requested Freeman Sunday but he was not made available): "A few different things. No. 1, have they been doing all the things that we need them to do for our program to be able to warrant that they do talk? That's No. 1. No. 2, if there's been some guys that have some type of issues with our football team that I don't feel comfortable with, meaning I've had to make some type of decision that's discipline related. I don't feel comfortable with them getting an opportunity to talk either."

• While Auburn has had its share of problems recently, Chizik’s old team, Iowa State, is having great success. The Cyclones, led by former Auburn defensive coordinator Paul Rhoads, improved to 5-3 with a 9-7 upset at Nebraska. That’s already the most victories Iowa State has had since the 2005 season, when it won seven times and made the Houston Bowl. “I’m really happy for them,” said Chizik, who coached in Ames, Iowa, for two years. “They had a huge win yesterday and that’s great. Those are great kids and they deserve some good things to happen to them for sure.”

• Chizik said he and offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn discussed getting H-back Mario Fannin more carries as a tailback. The junior had six carries for 56 yards against LSU, a 9.3-yard average.

• Chizik said LB Adam Herring did not play Saturday because he was “a little banged up.”

• Coleman said the injury he suffered Saturday was simply a knee strain. The senior had to be helped off the field but returned to make six tackles, with a sack and a tackle for a loss. “They say it’s fine,” he said. “Just sore. Real sore.”

• RB Onterio McCalebb continues to be slowed by an ankle injury he suffered in the Ball State game earlier this year. "It's just my ankle," he said. "I can still run on my ankle, it feels good, it's just like when I'm running to the left it kind of hurts a little bit and stuff like that but still I can cut. When I run to the right side I'm all good. It's just when I run to the left and try to get to the corner it slows me down. I just put my leg up a little bit and try to get rolling." He hopes to be 100 percent by Saturday.

• My main story for tomorrow's paper is about Chris Todd keeping his starting job with little mention of Neil Caudle, but the junior was still there for interviews after throwing his first career touchdown pass in a backup role against LSU. He gave Todd his full support as the starter. "We’re handling it the right way," Caudle said. "We believe in Chris. We believe he’s a good player. He’s showed that numerous times. Things aren’t clicking on offense right now but we’re going to get it fixed and we know Chris is going to do a good job for us."

• As for the team picking sides, Caudle's not all about it. "I’m personally going to work to make sure that doesn’t happen," he said. "We all stand behind Chris. We know that he’s a good quarterback. He’s showed that this season. I don’t think there’s going to be a division like that."

• Caudle said he's prepared to start if he has to. "Absolutely. I prepare every week as if I’m the starter. I think that’s my job and my role on this team right now. I’m always prepared to go in there to play and I’m not going to change anything from week to week."

• Caudle also commented on the team's current three-game losing streak: "It’s like we’ve always been told. It’s easy to keep a positive attitude when you’re winning, when you’re 5-0. It’s situations like these that really are tough situations where you have to dig deep down and find out who you really are. We’re working on that right now. We’re going to come together as a team and use these three losses as a positive thing instead of a negative thing and really come together and finish this thing out strong."